Today has been the best day I have had all week. I actually managed to get some work done. I slept late, got up had breakfast, which is new for me, and then watched some T.V. I put my laundry away and then decided to go the movies. In my little Iowan town I only get 3 choices and today's choice was Blood Diamond. It was actually very good and Leonardo DiCaprio was the best I've seen him. Unfortunately, the movie was quite violent and I almost left in the first five minutes because I was not in the mood for it. I stuck it out and it turned out to be quite good.

Here's the best part. I got home from the movies at 6:30 and have been working on my syllabus for the past 6 hours. It's almost finished. I have two empty class days, but I think if I rework a couple of slots I can fill the days with things I already have planned. All in all the class should be quite interesting and I hope will be fun for the students as well as me. Tomorrow I have to get the syllabus done for my other class and then I'll almost be ready to start to work on Tuesday.


I've rented a three bedroom house in my VERY small town in Iowa that continues to be a source of strange and humorous things. First it was supposed to come furnished. However, my idea of furnished and the realtor's idea of furnished are very different. When I got to the house, it had a chair, an end table, a double bed frame with a mildewed mattress and a dresser. I pointed out that the mildewed mattress wouldn't work at all, and they agreed to get me another one. I went off to get things I needed and when I returned I had a kitchen table with three chairs and a twin bed. I haven't slept on a twin bed since college. I don't fit. I've almost fallen out of the bed several times now, as I roll over. I have to be very careful while I am asleep. I have been promised a double bed by the end of next week. Cross your fingers that the realtor thinks it's as important as I do.

I'm witnessing my first snow fall tonight. We've had snow here all week, but it was on the ground when I got here. It started snowing here this evening and it's been snowing all night. There are several different forecast for how much snow we are supposed to get. One guy said 4-6 inches, weather.com says 1-2, and another guy said 5-7. I don't really care, I just think it's cool that it's snowing, although it means I'll shovel snow for the first time tomorrow in 12 years. Sounds like fun to me.